Good Thursday morning.
It’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah (יום השואה), which commemorates a systematic program undertaken by Hitler and the Nazis during WWII to murder millions of Jews and other minority groups in Europe. (Technically speaking, this began at sunset yesterday and lasts through sunset this evening).
This mass killing occurred in the 1930s and 40s, during which 6 million Jews were put to death in a variety of horrific ways – most notably in gas chambers.
All told, some 11 million individuals were murdered by thee Nazis, including 5 million non-Jews – thousands of Russian gypsies, LGBTQ individuals, disabled persons, Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others.
These numbers are estimates, as there is no single document that was maintained by the Nazis detailing the exact count of their victims.
Why is it important to remember? Well, for one thing, there are still people who maintain the Holocaust never occurred. Also, Anti-Semitic hate crimes are alarmingly on the rise. In fact, the Anti Defamation League reports there were 51 incidents of anti-Semitic assaults in New York last year, representing a 325% increase over the year before – the highest number of such assaults on record.
Remembrance is our eternal duty, but remembrance without action risks becoming an empty ritual. As individuals, we must never be indifferent to human cruelty and human suffering. As nations, we must stand together across the international community against antisemitism, which is once again rearing its ugly head around the world.
In Israel, today is both a national memorial day and public holiday. The first official commemorations took place in 1951, and the observance was anchored in a law passed by the Knesset (Israel’s unicameral legislature) in 1959.
It is held on the 27th of Hebrew month of Nisan (usually falling in April/May), unless the 27th would be adjacent to Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, in which case the date is shifted by 24 hours. The choosing of the day was something of a debate (how like the Jewish people!)
In the U.S., Congress passed legislation in 1978 declaring April 28–29 – the anniversary of the American liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in 1945 – to be Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust.
It’s going to be another day on the cooler side, with temperatures in the mid-50s and cloudy skies. We will see those gusty winds again in the afternoon, so be prepared to hang on to your hat – quite literally.
In the headlines…
The U.S. has credible evidence Russia executed Ukrainians who tried to surrender in the Donetsk region, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack said at a United Nations (U.N.) meeting.
President Joe Biden will speak today about Ukraine’s fight against Russia, days after the administration sent two top officials to Kyiv.
Biden will request Congress fund a new supplemental aid package for Ukraine during his remarks at the White House.
The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a mostly symbolic bill urging President Biden to sell the frozen luxury assets of Russian oligarchs hit with sanctions and use the funds to provide additional military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has warned the West of a “lightning fast” response to any country intervening in the Ukraine war and creating “strategic threats for Russia.”
The Kremlin’s move to cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, two NATO members, left Europe to confront the prospect of an energy crisis as the conflict extends into a broader standoff with Russia over economic sanctions and military shipments.
At least six different Kremlin-linked hacking groups have conducted nearly 240 cyber operations against Ukrainian targets, Microsoft said, revealing a broader scope of alleged Russian cyberattacks during the war than previously documented.
It turned out that, just as in the ground war, the Russians were less skillful, and the Ukrainians were better defenders against cyberattacks, than most experts expected.
Biden will make his first trip to Asia as president next month, visiting South Korea and Japan from May 20 to May 24, underscoring his commitment to the region even as international attention is directed toward the crisis in Ukraine.
Biden congratulated the 2022 national teacher of the year by offering a deeply personal story saluting school leaders who helped him overcome a serious childhood stutter decades before he had White House aspirations.
Biden claimed that school children don’t belong to parents “when they’re in the classroom,” adding: “They’re all our children. And the reason you’re the teachers of the year is because you recognize that.”
Senate Minority Whip John Thune and a group of GOP senators are introducing a bill to ban Biden from canceling student loan debt, amid news Biden is considering doing just that.
The House unanimously passed legislation calling on the State Department to submit a plan to help Taiwan regain its observer status at the World Health Organization, seeking to boost the island as it faces pressure from China.
A federal agency that gives healthcare workers relief on their student loans in exchange for working in underserved communities didn’t show greater flexibility than in previous years to participants seeking to pause or exit their obligations amid the pandemic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci changed his tune on where the U.S. stands in the pandemic, walking back comments he made Tuesday in which he said the U.S. was “out of pandemic phase,” saying Wednesday “by no means” was the pandemic over.
Fauci has decided not to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday amid concerns about Covid, a senior administration official confirmed.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s coronavirus infection is raising questions that some in the nation’s capital wish would remain unspoken: Is it safe for Biden to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner? Should the dinner even be held?
Biden will limit how much time he spends at the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner as he works to limit his potential exposure to the coronavirus, press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Upstate’s Covid hot spot, which started in Central New York, is the largest in the U.S. and now includes cities like Buffalo, Rochester, and Binghamton, health experts say people living there should be increasing their precautions.
Saratoga County now has the highest COVID-19 infection rate in the Capital Region, but, mysteriously, has not been flagged by the Centers for Disease Control’s county-level warning system.
New York’s highest court ruled that Democratic leaders had violated the State Constitution when they drew new congressional and state Senate districts, and ordered a court-appointed special master to draw replacement lines for this year’s midterm elections.
In a sweeping 32-page ruling, a divided Court of Appeals chided Democrats for defying the will of voters who adopted constitutional reforms in 2014 to curb political influence in the redistricting process and create a new outside commission to guide it.
The court also indicated that the June 28 party primaries for the congressional and State Senate districts would likely have to be postponed until August to allow time for the new maps to be drawn and for candidates to collect petitions to qualify for the ballot.
The decision returned the issue to lower court Judge Patrick McCallister, allowing him to work with a special master to draw the map. McCallister has appointed Jonathan Cervas as a special master and said the new congressional map will be issued by May 24.
“Prompt judicial intervention is both necessary and appropriate to guarantee the People’s right to a free and fair election,” wrote Chief Judge Janet DiFiore. “The procedural unconstitutionality of the congressional and senate maps is, at this juncture, incapable of a legislative cure.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul declined to back Mayor Eric Adams in asking New Yorkers to send in photos of cops distracted by their phones at subway stations, saying she and the mayor have “different approaches” to fighting transit crime.
Adams expressed support for Hochul’s attempt to remove indicted former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin from the state’s primary ballot.
Hochul faces steep opposition from members of her own party — especially in the Senate — as she continues pushing legislative leaders to take action on the Benjamin matter before the state Board of Elections finalizes the primary ballot in early May.
The union that represents rank-and-file NYPD officers hit back at Adams with a statement about cops using cell phones on the job.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino accused Hochul of failing to enforce existing state law against the migrants that the White House is flying into an airport outside New York City under cover of darkness.
Rep. Thomas Suozzi, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, unveiled a proposed government reform plan that would overhaul New York’s embattled ethics, campaign finance and budgetary regulations.
Hochul announced $2.6 million in funding to support the state’s Holocaust survivors during a speech marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Hochul has been sent a bill to extend the life of the state’s limousine safety task force through October, allowing the group more time to continue its work on improving limo safety after the 2018 stretch limo crash in Schoharie that killed 20.
Hochul praised the MTA workers who responded to the harrowing mass shooting at a Brooklyn subway station earlier this month, awarding commemorative plaques to 18 employees she called “our heroes.”
Adams believes in second chances, and he has put that philosophy into practice in hiring for his cabinet.
Adams, it seems, just wants to be loved. And he used his executive budget address Tuesday to respond to his critics by showering them with money.
Adams said he may need to hire more correction officers at Rikers because he wants to fire those who are still technically on the job — but not physically at work because they’re faking sickness or injury.
Adams has called a meeting with the NYPD’s commanding officers to solicit ideas about combatting soaring crime in the Big Apple ahead of the historically bloody summer month.
Adams criticized an unnamed reporter for showing him “disrespect” when asking about his tax returns, and then said that “there’s nothing I enjoy more than communicating with the press corps in New York City.”
John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of the Gristedes supermarket chain, posted a $10,000 reward for information about a Manhattan armed robbery where two of his workers were bound at gunpoint with zip ties.
City lawmakers are set to probe how an embattled city agency allowed thousands of apartments meant for homeless New Yorkers to sit empty as the Big Apple’s homelessness crisis exploded into full view in recent months.
An independent hearing officer recommended a two-year suspension of thoroughbred trainer Bob Baffert, siding with the NYRA in their unprecedented push to bar one of horse racing’s most decorated trainers from their tracks.
Dozens of Shaker Middle School students are arriving late to school every day due to busing problems, North Colonie Superintendent D. Joseph Corr said in a parents advisory council meeting this month.
Revolution Rail, a North Creek rail-biking company, will purchase the defunct Saratoga and North Creek Railway for $2.7 million under an agreement filed with a federal bankruptcy court in Denver.
The city of Minneapolis and its police department exhibited a pattern of racial discrimination over the past decade, according to a report published by the state’s Department of Human Rights.
